Public bodies join hands in bid to help online sales for SMEs, farmers

Meanwhile, Thailand Post expects to increase the competitiveness of local businesses nation-wide.
Sanpanchai Huvanandana, president of CAT Telecom, said that the firm developed the iget Mart app to support local small and medium-sized businesses and OTOP entrepreneurs who want expand their customers via an online channel. 
“We provide the online platform to support traditional businesses that want to provide their products via online platform, and aim to increase business potential as well as customer demand in the digital era,” said Sanpanchai.
He said that the firm’s online platform makes products from about 500 shops available to the market, and expects that by the end of this year it will have been downloaded about a million times.
“The iget Mart is an important tool to help local businesses to build their online-to-offline (O2O) strategy,” he explained.
“It also has iget POS, which is a service that helps to manage shops, such as ordering products, stock management, payment services, accounting and tracking products. This is a chance to use technology to help and support the growth of Thai products and services in the global market,” said Sanpanchai.
Meanwhile, Thailand Post has joined hand with Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) to offer rice via their online shopping website www.thailandpostmart.com. The collaboration is expected to generate revenue of around Bt30 million worth from rice sales via the online channel in the next year.
Samorn Terdthampiboon, president of Thailand Post said that the national service has initiated a project to both increase distribution channels and also provide logistics systems as well as a warehouse. The result should improve the range of public products in the country’s retail and wholesale markets. 
The collaboration with PWO demonstrates the potential for integration of public organisations, and the leadership role they could play in improving distribution of products. Their collaboration could also create strengths for farmers and community enterprises under the Thailand 4.0 policy of the government. 
The policy aims to boost local incomes by adding value to agricultural products and by providing effective distribution channels such as the online marketplace. 
PWO president Intira Phokpoonyarak, sees the collaboration as a first step to distribute rice through an online channel, with rice going for Bt180 for 3 kilograms delivered by EMS within two days.
“The collaboration will enable the creation of a business network that allows farmers to earn more income. In the next step, it will provide ready-made meals via an online network,” said Intira.
She said that the agency needs to adjust itself by expanding the areas and markets for doing business. Purchase orders can be made from today via the www.thailandpostmart.com. 
The agency expects it will reach its goal to distribute rice via the online channel with sales of Bt30 million by the end of next year.